Usability of Social Media During Times of Disaster World Usability Day Liza Potts, Associate Professor // Director of WIDE Research // Director of Experience Architecture Dept. of Writing, Rhetoric, & American Michigan State University College of Arts & Michigan State University

Introductions… Director of WIDE Research  Social user experience, disaster studies, participatory culture, fans  Research sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Institute of Museum & Library Services  Leadership group for #WomeninTC and Chair of ACM’s SIGDOC Associate Professor in Dept. of Writing, Rhetoric, & American Cultures  Director of Experience Architecture program  Teaching classes in User Experience, Content Strategy, Digital Rhetoric, Research Methods, Information Design, Digital Humanities  Study Abroad focused on Cultures & Storytelling User Experience Architect working in/with Industry Partners since 1994  Built software used by millions, managed teams across three continents  Design Consultancies, Start-Ups, Microsoft, advised NBC/Universal, RIM, FordDirect, ICON, Willis, National Grid, Lincoln Financial, etc.

Prior Research: Disasters Studying disasters since 2004  Indian Ocean Earthquake/Tsunami  London Bombings  Hurricane Katrina  Mumbai Attacks  Norway Attacks (Utøya)  Christ Church Earthquake #EQNZ  Japan Earthquake / Tsunami  Boston Bombings  Sandy Hook School Shooting  Colorado Theater Shootings  And several recent disasters…

BECAUSE REASONS Why Social Media? Participation Interaction Presence Across systems, time zones, and cultures Why Disaster? Immediacy Time-sensitive Urgency Across systems, time zones, and cultures

Social Media Use During Disasters

Disaster  Participation Indian Ocean Earthquake and Tsunami  Participation Through the MSM, Red Cross/Crescent, limited on Flickr Hurricane Katrina  Participation around MSM (CNN) with Craigslist and LiveJournal London Bombings of 7 July  Flickr, IRC, GoogleEarth Keyhole Maps, Blogs, cellphone video, MS Paint Virginia Tech Massacre  AIM, texting, Facebook groups Mumbai Bombings  Rise of Twitter, Blogs, Google Docs as information centers Boston Bombings  Issues on reddit and 4chan Since – Twitter, reddit, and culturally specific social networks

What are the issues? Usability Problems  Constraining use – lack of interconnectedness  Incongruence – what lies beneath vs what’s on top  Lack of contextual and cultural understanding  New awesome systems no one knows about Participant Solutions  Hashtags  r/news and r/?  Facebook, FB groups  YouTube, Image pools  MS Paint  Texting

Broken experiences

And Participant-Led Solutions

Thinking in Experiences Across systems, nationalities, technologies  Tasks: Information Gathering  Experiences: Narratives, Stories  Language: Cross-Cultural and Communal “…there are no Other People. It’s only us.” ~ N. Gaiman

Social Media Use During Disasters

Dina Works to Create a Participatory Experience “Our updates and conversations on Twitter kept us connected,” ~ Dina Mehta

Thinking in Experiences Across systems, nationalities, technologies  Tasks: Information Gathering  Experiences: Narratives, Stories  Language: Cross-Cultural and Communal “…there are no Other People. It’s only us.” ~ N. Gaiman

Experience Architects play a strategic role in brainstorming, building, and sustaining digital experiences for participants Our program is 50/50 for gender and 27% diverse – with the goal of improving diversity in the software industry, one student at a time Experience architecture is the strategy and practice of user experience from the perspective of the Humanities

B.A. in Experience Architecture Experience Architecture RhetoricWriting Graphic Design Information Technology Philosophy Computer Science

Talking to Prospective Students

Thank you! Liza Potts Associate Professor of the Department of Writing, Rhetoric, and American Director of WIDE Research wide.cal.msu.edu Director of Experience Architecture xa.cal.msu.edu